RATS IN THE RATHAUS

I decided to start focusing on my writing a few months ago. This has led me to try writing my first short story. I haven't written more than 12 pages of fiction historically & I've written lots of shorter non-fiction pieces. This is the first longer attempt at longer fiction, I'm really enjoying it & as I was telling Katie, I probably put in my 10,000 hours twenty years ago. Its fun to actually know some tips & tricks that come naturally for me. My intention is to write a short story for each of the DUNGEON DEGENERATES characters, starting with the Vermin Hunter.

She liked killing small things.

It was black in the large kitchen, a realm of abstract shadows. The song of crickets chirping steadily outside came in the cracks in the windows. The rat skulked where the walls met the floor, creeping quietly with a desperate energy to its stealth, but unaware that it was being watched. Smelling the tiny crumbs of food that people had dropped & not swept up, finding its livelihood in the carelessness of the comfortable lives of the people whose house it was. Countless generations of rats had died to perfect this act, this silent pursuit of survival on the periphery of civilization. 

A brick appeared from above & smashed the rat’s skull. There was the crunching of bone & nothing else, no time to even squeak, just a wet spot of blood, eyes bulging out of their sockets & what used to be a murine countenance reduced to a hairy, bloody mess. Mina was smiling from cheek to cheek, her eyes glimmered. Few things brought her the satisfaction of ending the short lives of these vermin.

Rodents, bugs, amphibians, birds, & other nameless things that dwell in the shadows on the periphery were all targets for her. Nothing small & squirming was safe when in Minna’s gaze.